Flyers · Glossary
Instagram post and story sizes
An Instagram post is 1,080 pixels wide. A square post is 1,080 by 1,080, a portrait post 1,080 by 1,350 (4:5, the tallest feed shape), and a landscape post 1,080 by 566 (1.91:1). Stories and Reels are 1,080 by 1,920 (9:16). Instagram keeps widths from 320 to 1,080 pixels and scales anything larger down.
The pixel sizes are the easy half. The half that costs people is that the tallest shape wins the most room in the feed, and that stories and Reels are shown under the app's own controls.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
4 min read · Published · Updated
| Placement | Pixels | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed post, portrait | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 | The tallest feed shape, so it takes the most screen |
| Feed post, square | 1080 x 1080 | 1:1 | The classic shape |
| Feed post, landscape | 1080 x 566 | 1.91:1 | The shortest, easy to scroll past |
| Story and Reels | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | Full screen, with interface drawn over the top and bottom |
Portrait takes the most room
Instagram accepts feed images between 1.91:1 landscape and 4:5 portrait, and a phone screen is taller than it is wide, so a 4:5 portrait post at 1,080 by 1,350 fills more of the feed than a square or a landscape image of the same width. That is why most brands now design feed posts at 4:5. The profile grid shows posts as tiles cropped from the centre, so keep the main subject and any words in the middle, where every crop keeps them.
Stories and Reels have covered bands
A story or Reel fills the screen, and the app draws its own elements over it: the account row at the top, and the caption, reply field and buttons at the bottom. For Reels and Stories ads, Meta publishes the figures: keep the top 14 percent, the bottom 35 percent and 6 percent at each side free of anything essential, which on 1,080 by 1,920 is 269 pixels at the top and 672 at the bottom. Headlines and calls to action belong in the band between.
Why a square and a story are different designs
They are not the same layout at two sizes. A square gives room for one strong line and an image; a story gives a tall column where the eye travels down and the last thing seen is nearest the thumb. Content moves rather than scales: text that sits beside an image in a square usually sits above or below it in a story. Scaling a square up to fill a story either crops it heavily or leaves empty bands.
Instagram canvases in the flyer builder
The flyer builder offers two Instagram canvases: Instagram Post at 1,080 by 1,080 and Instagram Story at 1,080 by 1,920. There is no 4:5 portrait canvas. Exports are rendered at twice the canvas, so a post exports at 2,160 by 2,160 and a story at 2,160 by 3,840, which Instagram scales down to 1,080 wide on upload. Changing a page's size swaps in the same design's native layout for that size where one exists, which is true of all 259 designs, so the switch swaps layouts rather than scaling one.
Common mistakes
Posting an A4 flyer as it is, which Instagram shows as a letterboxed page with text too small to read on a phone. Putting the offer in the bottom third of a story, under the reply field. Designing a square when a 4:5 portrait would have taken a third more of the screen. Uploading a narrow image below 320 pixels wide, which Instagram enlarges and softens. And writing the key message only in the caption, which most people scrolling never open.
Questions people ask
Can I post an A4 flyer to Instagram as it is?
You can, but it rarely works. An A4 page is taller and narrower than any feed shape, so it is shown letterboxed or cropped, and text sized for print becomes too small to read on a phone. Lay the design out again as a square or a story, carrying across the words, images and colours rather than the layout.
What happens to an image wider than 1,080 pixels?
Instagram scales it down to 1,080 pixels wide, keeping the aspect ratio as long as it sits between 1.91:1 and 4:5. Uploading a larger file does no harm, and a sharp 2,160 pixel export often scales down more cleanly than a file made at exactly 1,080. Images narrower than 320 pixels are enlarged instead.
Does a square or a portrait post perform better?
Portrait takes more of the screen, which gives it more time in view as somebody scrolls, and that is why it is the common choice for brands. Performance still depends mostly on the first thing people see. A portrait post with a weak opening loses to a square with a strong one.
Should text go in the image or the caption?
The essential line goes in the image, because the caption is truncated after a line or two and most people never expand it. Keep on image text short enough to read in a second, and put the detail, links and hashtags in the caption for anybody who wants more.
Do I need a different file for each placement?
Usually yes, at least one for the feed and one for stories and Reels, because the shapes differ too much for one file to crop well into both. A portrait feed post and a full screen story from the same design, laid out separately, cover almost every Instagram placement.
Make one with flyers
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own.
Create a flyer with OneCraftRelated questions
- 9:16 vs 4:5 vs 1:1 video: which ratio for which feed?9:16 vs 4:5 vs 1:1 video: which ratio each feed and full screen placement wants, what cropping does to text, and how to plan one video for several feeds.
- What is a safe zone in vertical video?The vertical video safe zone is the part of a 9:16 frame no app interface covers. Meta's 14, 35 and 6 percent figures, TikTok's layout, and where captions go.
- Facebook cover photo size and safe areaThe Facebook cover photo size is 851 x 315 pixels, the fastest loading file, and at least 400 x 150. What phones crop, where the profile picture sits.
- A4 flyer size in pixels at 72, 150 and 300 DPIAn A4 flyer is 2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 DPI, 1240 x 1754 at 150 DPI and 595 x 842 at 72 DPI. A4 is 210 x 297 mm or 8.27 x 11.69 inches.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .